People purchase products from many different merchants using a variety of different payment options. The transactions for these purchases typically are confirmed by physical in-store receipts or by electronic messages addressed to the purchasers' messaging accounts (e.g., a purchaser's electronic mail account). The large number and diversity of confirmation types makes it difficult for people to track their purchases and obtain a comprehensive understanding of their purchase histories.
In addition, the large diversity of merchants from which people purchase products makes it difficult for merchants to obtain sufficient purchase history data to develop accurate customer profiles. Even assuming that a person uses a common identifier (e.g., a loyalty card or credit card) for all his or her purchases, these purchases typically are tracked only by the merchant that issued the identifier to the customer. This lack of information about the customer limits a merchant's ability to effectively target its promotions in ways that will encourage them to purchase the merchant's product offerings.
The large diversity of merchants also leads to a large diversity in confirmation formats, making it difficult and expensive to extract product purchase information from purchase confirmations.